All Kyle Weatherman needed was an opportunity to showcase his talent.
Weatherman has appeared in the Xfinity Series frequently for the past five seasons. Often, he has been known for maximizing a team’s potential, usually in an underfunded effort. In 2020, he scored Mike Harmon Racing’s first top-10 finish in team history. His standout effort and ability to work in the race shop led to a full season in 2021 for MHR.
To begin the 2022 season, he had enough funding for the first five races with DGM Racing. After that, he became the primary driver for Jesse Iwuji Motorsports, boosting his resume with a pair of top-10 finishes and several solid qualifying performances. Yet in 2023, he competed for five different organizations and became more of a factor behind the scenes, assisting Hendrick Motorsports with its simulator program.
But when he joined DGM Racing last fall at Texas Motor Speedway, he knew there was a strong likelihood that he would return to the team full time in 2024.
Weatherman and DGM team owner Mario Gosselin are interchangeable. Both are blue-collar racers who know every nut and bolt on their racecars. Together, they are like two peas in a pod.
“We’re just a good fit and a good combination,” Weatherman told Jayski.com recently. “We know what we want and where we want to be and we just keep on working and chipping along and trying to get there.”
Away from the track, Weatherman is working full time at DGM’s Mooresville, N.C. shop. Gosselin is based out of the team’s primary shop in Lake Wales, Florida and coordinates with Bryan Berry, one of DGM’s crew chiefs, of what is in store each week. The driver believes having familiarity with the racecar can only benefit him during the race weekend.
“On a daily basis, interior wise is my number one thing where I’m taking care of all the interior stuff,” Weatherman said. “But if they need help throwing a motor in or putting headers on, the exhaust on, rear-end housing in gear, anything, taking the fuel cell in and out.
“I call myself a mechanic Monday through Thursday and am super involved in the shop. When a problem does occur at the race track or I hear something, feel something, smell something, I feel like I can help diagnose what that might be before we even get to the pit stall.”
Weatherman will go as far as telling the crew what size wrench the No. 91 team will need to assess the issue. Being hands on is a trait Gosselin can appreciate.
“I feel like the more you know about your racecar – the more you work on it – if something is going on, you have a better idea of what’s happening,” Gosselin said. “That is how I’ve been all my life.”
Weatherman believes DGM has the ability to be an established top-20 team on a weekly basis. The middle of the Xfinity field is arguably as deep as it’s ever been, making each week more valuable, particularly if there’s attrition.
The No. 91 team capitalized on others’ misfortune at Dover Motor Speedway in late April, with Weatherman tying the best finish of his career in eighth. He also had a shining performance at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finishing 11th. While both driver and owner believe the team should string together more consistent finishes, DGM often overachieves.
“I feel like what Mario does, what we have to work with and the budget we’re working with, we are the best underfunded team,” Weatherman stated. “There are a lot of underfunded teams when you compare it to JR Motorsports. If you look at some of these other places that we’re beating consistently and outrunning, I know that we have a lower budget than they do.”
Through 18 races in 2024, Weatherman has seven top-20 finishes, including a 14th-place effort at the Chicago Street Course last weekend. With the stability of a full-time ride, he believes it’s undoubtedly the best opportunity that he’s had in his NASCAR career. It’s up to him to make the most of it.
“That’s what makes it tough. We’ve taken leaps and bounds, even when I drove the stuff from when I drove two years ago, but so has the whole field,” Weatherman added. “They’ve stepped up their game on spending money and getting stuff updated and moving in the right direction. It’s tough to see the results and gains.”
DGM has the speed to showcase its ability. The goal for the remainder of the season is to cap off the weekends and become more consistent.
“I felt like we would have more top 15s,” Gosselin said, assessing the 2024 season. “We’ve had a couple stellar runs, I just thought it would be a little more even keel with top-15 finishes where we’ve had a lot of finishes outside the top 28 or top 30.”
Aside from competing in the Xfinity Series, Weatherman remains busy. Instead of solely being the simulator driver for Hendrick, he began doing more wheelforce testing for Chevrolet on the sim. His primary focus is to get the tire model put together for the key partnered teams.
This is another opportunity that Weatherman doesn’t take lightly.
“It shows that my feedback and my talent is seen in a sense and they also respect and appreciate the feedback that I’m giving them and helping get the tire to the direction that they want,” Weatherman said. “If I didn’t give direct feedback or the direction they were trying to get, they wouldn’t have re-signed me. It’s cool to know what I’m doing is correct.”
The Xfinity Series heads to Pocono Raceway this weekend, where Weatherman has a pair of top-20 finishes in three starts.